NEW YORK — Mike Huckabee is the master of ceremonies in a midtown Manhattan studio smaller than a basketball court.
On the afternoon of Oct. 23, about 55 guests filed into the room, ducked under a long camera boom and squinted into the bright studio lights to see Huckabee in action as he taped that evening’s show.
As the guests found their seats, Ryan Reiss, a professional comic working for Fox, gave a few instructions.
“Smiling and clapping is important on this show,” Reiss said. “If you smile and clap on TV you look 15 pounds lighter,” he said. Members of the group - women in neat dresses and makeup, men in blazers and ties - were largely on the older side.
While Reiss warmed up the crowd, Huckabee paced the set in his black cowboy boots and tapped his earpiece, which was connected to a spaghetti-coil of wire that disappeared into his blue pinstriped suit.
“I’m ready if you guys are,” he said, alone on the stage inside Fox News headquarters near Sixth Avenue and 48th Street. The crew of jeans-andflannel-wearing producers who were clumped behind the cameras and out of the spotlight picked up his voice in their headphones.
“Don’t mess this up,” he said, smiling.
Turning to the audience, Huckabee feigned a slight seizure.
“I’m talking to myself,” he deadpanned. “I’m schizophrenic, I’m on meds.”
The crowd laughed.
“Politicians by their very nature have to have an entertainer side to them,” said Keet Lewis, a retired businessman and a former Southern Baptist Convention official from Dallas, as he waited for the cameras to roll.
Lewis arranged a trip to New York with his daughter and son-in-law around Huckabee’s taping schedule.
“Mike has a unique ability as an entertainer and with his music to take complicated political issues and synthesize and reduce them in a way that’s easy to understand,” he said.
“That’s a real gift.”
Huckabee and his crew then proceeded to tape different segments of the show, in no particular order.
One guest, Charlie Baker, Republican Massachusetts candidate for governor, dialed in from Brockton, Mass.
Huckabee pinned Baker’s opponent, incumbent Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, to President Barack Obama, mentioning that the two have a long-standing friendship.
Then, turning to the camera, he said that calls to Patrick’s campaign office offering him an interview on the show weren’t returned.
In another piece, Huckabee challenged Democratic critics of the “fair tax,” a plan that would replace federal income taxes with a national sales tax, to a debate.
“Let me speak very slowly and clearly so that even Harry Reid can understand,” he said, referring to the Senate majority leader. “It abolishes the IRS.”
Next, Huckabee strapped on his bass guitar and joined country star Aaron Tippin in a song, “I Wanna Play,” from a CD he co-produced along with the National Association of Music Merchants. Proceeds from the sale of the disc will go to buy instruments for schoolchildren.
After the song, he joked to the audience that it’s always been his dream to smash his guitar to pieces, a concert climax made famous by the rock group The Who.
“I’m not going to do it with this one,” he said, patting his instrument which hung from a leather strap with “Huckabee” emblazoned in red, white and blue.
When all the segments were wrapped up, his staff spliced things together, getting the show ready to be aired that evening. Huckabee popped outside the entranceto chat and sign autographs for a few dozen admirers.
From start to finish, the taping for hour-long show, took less than 90 minutes.
Some, like Dan Wenker, a retired engineer from Las Vegas who was at the show with his wife, didn’t agree 100 percent with Huckabee’s political views - they just wanted to experience the taping of a show while sightseeing in New York.
“For us, it was just a novelty,” he said.
Others, like Bill and Anne Ferrie, retirees who live in Brick, N.J., were more enthusiastic. The show was their second time at a Huckabee taping.
“He’s just so likable,” Anne said, adding that she was drawn to the former pastor’s “faith and moral character.”
“We are brave enough to talk about Jesus and God,” she said. “It used to be you kept that to yourself. Mike Huckabee encouraged people to speak out.”
Front Section, Pages 8 on 10/31/2010